If we want to safeguard our social model, reforms must take place. This only becomes possible when we are able to question ourselves and not only expect efforts from others.
Last week we were confronted with some particularly bad budgetary news. After Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem announced that an agreement had been reached on new European budget rules, which will require our country to save 30 billion euros in the coming legislature, the Planning Bureau reported that the budget deficit will increase by 2029 without intervention. up to 39 billion euros.
However, few seem to worry about that. In the same week it was reported that the Flemish government has increased the budget for the 5,000 euro premium for the purchase of an electric car from 20 to 26 million euros, is allocating a 12 million euro subsidy for the organization of tech festivals and an undisclosed sum put on the table to create the masterpiece together with KU Leuven Of the structure of the human body from Vesalius for $1.8 million. And Van Peteghem came up with the proposal to bring another tax-friendly government bond onto the market.
In these tough budgetary times, shouldn’t we look further than our noses? Would buyers of a new electric car wonder whether their 5,000 euro premium is necessary? Would the tech festival organizers ask themselves whether their festival would also run financially without Flemish support? And would KU Leuven be asked whether it would not have been better to provide private sponsorship?
We can keep shouting bloody murder about the sorry state of the budget, but when push comes to shove, no one wants to pay the bill. I would like to hear that there must be a tax reform and a core task debate. Until proposals are put on the table and lobby groups make a fuss about the fact that certain favorable tax regimes or subsidies will be adjusted or abolished. Then suddenly it’sdon’t tax you, don’t tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree‘. And politicians, who have to think about their electoral supporters, are in a panic, because ‘mates don’t tax mates‘, as former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said.
If everyone continues to argue for tax incentives and government subsidies, we are sacrificing our future for the present.
Who is responsible for the pitiful state of the country? Just politics or should we also question ourselves? Should we consider it normal that we can enjoy tax benefits that others do not have? Should we consider it normal that every time the government passes, we stand with our hands open? If everyone continues to argue for tax incentives and government subsidies, without taking into account the broader social story, we are sacrificing our future for the present.
If we want to safeguard our social model, reforms must take place. This only becomes possible when we are able to question ourselves and not only expect efforts from others. Isn’t it logical that we accept that we have to work longer, that we have to pay more co-payments or tuition fees, that we receive fewer subsidies and that rental income and capital gains on shares are taxed? Politics must provide answers to these questions.
That is not self-evident. State Secretary for Budget Alexia Bertrand recently announced on 19 billion is left for core tasks such as police, defense and justice, while 37 billion euros were needed for this. It immediately becomes clear that substantial budgetary savings will be an extremely difficult exercise.
Everyone, citizens and companies, must realize that efforts must be made. Or in the words of George Washington, the first president of the United States: ‘We must consult our means rather than our wishes.’
The author is a lawyer and professor of tax law at the VUB
2024-02-24 23:27:32
#buyers #electric #car #euro #premium
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